It’s interesting how Go can envelop you so much as to invade your dreams! This has happened to me once before, when I was so enamored with Minesweeper that I’d play for hours while I slept. With something as complex as Go this takes on a different role in some cases.
I have been playing on Dragon Go Server which is a correspondance go server. This means that a game that might originally take an hour or so can instead take weeks to complete! This also means that I get to know the positions in the game fairly well… I think this is what sparked the dreams I’ve been having. For example, I was worried about This Game. If white were able to escape to the right, he could potentially link a large dead group with a small living one! And how did I realize that I needed to Defend Here? Well, aside from working it out the day after, I had a bad dream that white would be able to kill the stones in the lower right, and connect to the stones in the upper section of the board! Of course, this would make me lose instead of win a game I have probably already won.
The other time this has occurred was this past weekend. I had a lesson with a professional player (Mirel) on Friday where he showed me how he could kill my little groups very easily (yes, I had a 9 stone Handicap). I know well how Life and Death is very important. In this case, however, my dreams were not Go specific, but more of an allegory to the lesson I had played earlier that day. I was a fugitive in a mall or other large bright building. The color white was everywhere. I escaped from section to section and each time, the way back was blocked off and secured (e.g. killed) by security personnel. Finally I ended up in a section of the building that had no exit and I was forced to surrender. I believe I was wearing black, in a special forces type outfit with utility belt, etc.
It just goes to show how one’s mind can relate a complex game of go to a more realistic (or even hollywood-like) scenario.